I’m just back from a month filming in the Philippines for a new wildlife series. It was my first visit to these nature-rich islands and I found the people to be amongst the most welcoming, friendly and helpful I’ve met anywhere. There were lush, green ‘Hollywood filmset’-like forests, amazing looking reefs (unfortunately there wasn’t time to swim in them!) and, as one might expect for an extensive archipelago, a huge variety pack of endemic species.

Highlights included stunning damselflies (despite disruptions from torrential rain), one of the best bat colony spectacles anywhere, exploring the famous Underground River of Palawan and two multi-day hiking expeditions to track down one of the rarest mammals in the world, the Tamarau (a small buffalo) and one of the world’s largest pitcher plants, Nepenthes attenboroughii.

One beast waits for another: Canon's 50-1000mm lens in tamarau country

One of the moment's I was most looking forward to - seeing Nepenthes attenboroughii for the first time!

World Land Trust is a well-respected, effective organisation backed by such highly-informed, widely travelled patrons as Sir David Attenborough, Steve Backshall, Chris Packham and David Gower. World Land Trust safeguards threatened habitats by funding the purchase, management and protection of land by local partner organisations and communities. Recently, I was honoured to play a small part in making a film for them.

In a huge personal effort, accomplished composer and singer/ songwriter Sarah Class wrote and performed a song accompanied by a music video to promote World Land Trust. Sarah hired Five Films to direct the video and a small kaleidoscope of other people contributed archive footage and post-production skills. I was very happy when I was asked to help too.

Welcome to my new website. I've decided on a soft launch rather than a big fanfare while I continue to make adjustments and add new material. Thanks for visiting, please check back for new additions soon.